At the Circulating Library

Author: Clara Lemore

Author: Clara Lemore (1849–1898)

Alternate Name(s): Roberts (married name)

Biography: Clara Lemore was born in 1849 in the United States. She worked as an actress for ten years using her maiden name in the provincial theatre alongside actor-playwright Dion Boucicault and her stage-manager husband R. J. Roberts. As a member of a company, she toured Australia, 1879–80. She wrote one play in three acts, A Crooked Mile, which debuted at the Comedy Theatre, Manchester, in 1885 and eventually played at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, in 1889. After the death of her husband, Lemore left the stage and wrote full time, eventually becoming one of the most popular writers featured in The Family Herald. Her novels include A Harvest of Weeds (1890), A Covenant with the Dead (1892), Penhala: A Wayside Wizard (1895), and The Love of an Obsolete Woman (1897), which all show the influences of stage melodrama and sensation. She died suddenly of heart failure in 1898 during a visit to Barnes.

Author Tags:

• Actors
• American Authors
• Playwrights

References: Athenaeum (12 February 1898); The Era (19 February 1898)

Fiction Titles:

1. A Harvest of Weeds.  3 vol.  London: Ward and Downey, 1890.
2. Gwen Dale's Ordeal.  1 vol.  London: William Stevens, 1891.
3. Madge Dale's Marriage Portion.  1 vol.  London: William Stevens, 1891.
4. A Covenant with the Dead: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: Griffith and Farran, 1892.
5. Penhala: A Wayside Wizard.  3 vol.  London: Hurst and Blackett, 1895.
6. Put Asunder.  1 vol.  London: William Stevens, 1895.
7. At War with Destiny.  1 vol.  London: William Stevens, 1896.
8. The Love of an Obsolete Woman: Chronicled by Herself.  1 vol.  London: Archibald Constable, 1897.
9. A Bondage without Fetters.  1 vol.  London: William Stevens, 1898.
10. The Sport of Fate.  1 vol.  London: William Stevens, 1899.
11. A Little Usurper.  1 vol.  London: William Stevens, 1900.